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Detroit's TechTown Launching Venture Accelerator

DETROIT -- TechTown is launching a venture accelerator program.

Officials with TechTown say the program is modeled on the concepts of startup consultants Steve Blank and Bob Dorf, authors of 2012's "The Startup Owner's Manual: The Step-By-Step Guide For Building A Great Company."

Under the competitive program, "companies will spend 12 weeks developing their concepts from idea to launch or incubation and recruiting high performance tech teams," TechTown president and CEO Leslie Smith said.

Participants should "at least have a conccept pretty well formulated and equally important, a committed, appropriate team" to participate, Smith said.

TechTown hired a staffer to run the program last year. Charlie Moret ran a similar program for the state of Connecticut the past seven years, Smith said.

TechTown officials said they didn't have a specific target number of participating companies -- it will depend on the quality of the applicants.

TechTown will hold two information sessions on the accelerator on Wednesday, Feb. 20, at 8 a.m. and 6 p.m.

Those interested should register to attend the Feb. 20 sessions at http://techtowndetroit.eventbrite.com.

There's also more information at the recently redesigned www.techtowndetroit.org.

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